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Christianity Theme 1: Religious figures and sacred textsBooklet 6Theme 1: Religious figures and sacred textsKnowledge and understanding of religion and beliefD. The Bible as a source of wisdom and authority:How the Christian biblical canon was established. Diverse views on the Bible as the word of God:different understandings of inspiration (the objective view of inspiration; the subjective view of inspiration; John Calvin’s doctrine of accommodation)E.The early church (in Acts of the Apostles):Its message and format: the kerygmata as presented by C. H. Dodd, with reference to Acts 2:14-39; 3:12-26. The challenges to the kerygmata (with reference to the historical value of the speeches in Acts and the work of Rudolf Bultmann). The adapting of the Christian message to suit the audience.F.Two views of Jesus:A comparison of the work of two key scholars, including their views of Jesus with reference to their different methods of studying Jesus:John Dominic Crossan and N. T. Wright.Crossan: Jesus the social revolutionary; using apocryphal gospels; seeing Jesus as a product of his time; what the words of Jesus would have meant in Jesus’ time.Wright: Jesus the true Messiah; critical realism; texts as ‘the articulation of worldviews’; seeks to find the best explanation for the traditions found in the Gospels.Issues for analysis and evaluation will be drawn from any aspect of the content above, such as:The extent to which the Bible can be regarded as the inspired word of God.Whether the Christian biblical canonical orders are inspired, as opposed to just the texts they contain.The extent to which the kerygmata (within the areas of Acts studied) are of any value for Christians today.Whether the speeches in Acts have any historical value.The validity of using critical realism to understand Jesus.The validity of using apocryphal gospels to understand Jesus1 D. The Bible as a source of wisdom and authority:How the Christian biblical canon was established. Diverse views on the Bible as the word of God: different understandings of inspiration (the objective view of inspiration; the subjective view of inspiration; John Calvin’s doctrine of accommodation)The authority of the Bible refers to the idea that the Bible is normative for the church in all speech, thought, and practice. In other words, Scripture is the sole and final authority for Christians in all matters of faith and practice.The Bible is authoritative because its authority has been conferred by God, and this is where all discussion of biblical authority must begin. Thus, Scripture is a divine and human instrument through which God has communicated and revealed his authority. Most Evangelicals go further than this, insisting that the Bible has a genuine authority "as the authentic embodiment of God's self-disclosure... Some, like Karl Barth, allow this authority to be bestowed by God while insisting that the Bible itself is essentially a human document. Others - e.g., Rudolf Bultmann and Paul Tillich - regard the Bible as a fallible collection of religious writings on which the early church arbitrarily imposed an authority that evangelical piety has continued to uphold" (McDonald, p. 153-54)Watch the video (and use booklet 5) a brief visual summary of the books of the BibleCanon – Greek word meaning ‘rule’ or ‘measuring stick’left183660028322071947430Jesus00Jesus37466071959305The New Testament – 27 books00The New Testament – 27 books3502641947430The Old TestamentThe Old TestamentUse this article and the 1d. Power point presentation to make your own detailed notes on ‘How the Christian biblical canon was established.’IncludeOld TestamentEarly Church – apostles, letters, Justin MartyrControversies – Marcion and MontanusThe guidelines for accepting books – 5 The agreed canon – 4th Century Diverse views on the Bible as the word of God:Infallible truthThe only means to salvationThe principle source of divine revelationInspired by God but interpreted by the churchA resource for Christian livingA oppressive text that should be rejected.The Orthodox PerspectiveIf (the Bible) must not be regarded as something set up over the Church but as something that lives and is understood with the Church.’ Kalistos Ware, The Orthodox ChurchThe Bible is inspired by the Holy SpiritCanon determined by the ChurchThe Roman Catholic PerspectiveSimilarities with the Orthodox Church – the Church is a source of Authority‘One holy catholic and apostolic church’Second Vatican Council:Bible in the Vernacular – local languages Bible should be read by lay people for purposes of ‘personal devotion.’‘For all of what has been said about the way of interpreting Scripture is subject finally to the judgement of the Church, which carries out the divine commission and ministry of guarding and interpreting the word of God.’ Dei Verbum, 1965The Protestant PerspectiveMany and varied views on the Bible as the word of God.Bible is the supreme source of authorityThe ‘Word of God’‘Sola Scriptura’‘Priesthood of all believers.The use of the VernacularNo single right or authoritative interpretationAtheists and humanists would find much Biblical moral teaching valuable, but would interpret it as being the product of human wisdom and experience, rather than divine revelation. They may also look to events in the lives of important Biblical figures, such as Jesus, for inspiration and education.361597965257The Bible ‘contains’ the word of God00The Bible ‘contains’ the word of Godleft53381The Bible ‘is’ the word of God00The Bible ‘is’ the word of Godleft2844723. Diversity of perspectives concerning the status of Biblical authority within Christian communities. Diversity of perspectives concerning the status of Biblical authority within Christian communities Bible as sacrament00The Bible as sacramentleft12947The Bible reveals the word of God00The Bible reveals the word of GodDifferent understandings of inspiration‘Much of the modern confusion about the inspiration of the Bible stems from misconceptions of the word inspiration itself. The English word inspiration, derived from the Latin word inspiratio, refers to the “act of breathing in,” specifically, “the drawing of air into the lungs.”’ John F. WalvoordIn the modern word inspiration means a stimulus of the intellect or emotions.In connection to the Bible inspiration is ‘supernatural divine influence on the prophets, apostles, or sacred writers, by which they were qualified to communicate truth without error; a supernatural influence which qualifies men to receive and communicate divine truth’ Webster.‘As translated in 2 Timothy 3:16 in the Authorized Version the statement is made: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Though there has been some debate on the meaning of the phrase “all scripture,” the preceding verse referring as it does to “the holy scriptures,” gives us an important lead. It makes plain that verse 16 is not referring to all writings, but rather to those regarded as the Word of God, such as the Old Testament Scriptures and those portions of the New Testament which had been written at that time. Such Scriptures are declared to be given by inspiration of God.’ John F. WalvoordThere are several important elements that belong in a proper definition of inspiration: (1) the divine element—God the Holy Spirit superintended the writers, ensuring the accuracy of the writing; (2) the human element—human authors wrote according to their individual styles and personalities; (3) the result of the divine-human authorship is the recording of God’s truth without error; (4) inspiration extends to the selection of words by the writers; (5) inspiration relates to the original manuscripts.40Fill in the missing words, check using the 1d. PPP – inspired, individuals, poetry, criticism, differences, interpreted, inerrant, response, guidanceObjective view of inspirationSubjective view of inspiration‘Sometimes there was given a direct and oral revelation to be written down, such as was the case in the giving of the Mosaic law (Ex. 20:1), and such as was the case, in some instances, with other writers (Dan. 9:21-23; Rev. 17:7).’ SimmonsThe Bible is God’s direct word and is _______ as there can be no theological, historical or cultural error. They would therefore stay clear of any form of biblical __________. The Bible is dictated as each word was deliberately inspired by God through the Holy Spirit’s __________ of the writers. However most literalist groups with an objective view of inspiration will accept that the Bible does not simply contain history-it also contains ___________ and allegory. But where a text can be interpreted as recording history a literalist will always view it as such. Also Bible literature was written 2000 years ago and assumes some of the values of 2000 years ago. Objective Biblical literalists have to decide whether to re-interpret certain statements in the light of today’s commonly held assumptions. This has led to radical ______________ in practice.The way things are in reality.The Bible contains divine truths.‘At other times truth was revealed through the writers by such divine quickening and deepening of their own thinking as to enable them toperceive and infallibly record new truth, as seems to have been the case with Paul in much of his epistles.’ SimmonsThe subjective view is that the Bible records the experiences of people seriously seeking after God in their own lives, situations and cultures. They are not __________ and authoritative in themselves and neither are they inerrant. Indeed, a liberal theologian would feel free to make judgements on the practice and attitudes found in the Bible. Therefore they believe that the bible must be ___________ and that it cannot contain facts. However they do believe that it is meaningful and does correspond to an objective reality. It is the duty of ______________ to weigh what is found in the Bible and apply it, if appropriate, to their own lives as they seek in their path after God. The essential difference between this view and the last one is that there is no perceived need for a total community response (e.g. the church) to all parts of the Bible. The assumption is that the individual ___________ is what counts. right1759100Calvin’s view of accommodationJohn Calvin – protestant reformer – 1509-1564Calvin was not the first theologian to discuss the idea of accommodation, it has a long history from ancient Jewish writers to Augustine.Accommodation is a theological doctrine or idea.It states that Scripture has accommodated, or made allowances for, the original audience’s language and general level of understanding.God accommodates Himself to the human capacities of those to whom biblical revelation is given‘John Calvin, for instance, flatly affirmed the dictation of the Scripture. Kenneth Kantzer in his discussion on Calvin cites Calvin’s statement that “the Holy Spirit dictated to the prophets and apostles” and Calvin’s description of writers of Scripture as “clerks” and “penmen” as supporting this idea. In his other writings, however, Calvin freely admits the human element. What Calvin was actually affirming was infallibility rather than dictation in the absolute sense.’ John F. WalvoordResearch more on Calvin’s view of accommodation and add notes below.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLET.P. SimmonsWe have noted evidence that the Bible is a revelation from God. And we are told in the Bible that God gave the revelation by inspiration. If the Bible is God's revelation, it is right to let it speak for itself concerning its own nature. It is our purpose, then, in this chapter to inquire into the meaning andnature of inspiration, according to the Bible's own testimony. In the course that we are here pursuing we are following reason in its highest sense. It has been shown that reason demands a belief in God's existence. And it has been pointed out, moreover, that it is reasonable to expect a written revelation from God. It is the province of reason, then, in relation to revelation, first of all, to examine the credentials of communications that profess to be a revelation from God. If these credentials are satisfactory, then reason must accept the communications as coming from God; and hence must accept the things presented as being true. "Revelation is the viceroy who first presents his credentials to the provincial assembly, and then presides" (Liebnitz). In the foregoing manner, "reason itself prepares theway for a revelation above reason, and warrants an implicit trust in such revelation when once given" (Strong).Above reason is not against reason. It is only bald rationalism that rejects all it cannot fathom or rationally demonstrate. "The most unreasonable people in the world are those who depend solely upon reason, in the narrow sense" (Strong). Mere reasoning or the exercise of the logical faculty is not all ofreason. Reason, in its broad sense, comprehends the whole of the mind's power to recognize truth. Reason can rightly reject only that which contradicts known facts. And then, to be safe, reason must be "conditioned in its activity by a holy affection and enlightened by the Spirit of God" (Strong). To such reason, the Scriptures present nothing contradictory, although they do make known much beyond the unaided power of man to discover or to comprehend fully.1. THE MEANING OF INSPIRATIONWhen Paul said: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Tim. 3:16), he used the Greek word "theopneustos" for the idea of inspiration. This Greek word is composed of "theos," meaning God, and "pneo," meaning to breathe. The compound word is an adjective meaning literally "breathed of God." Since it is the breath that produces speech, this word provided a very apt and impressive way of saying that the Scripture is the word of God.11. THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN INSPIRATIONHowever, it was only in special cases that the words to be written down were orally dictated to the Scripture writers. In most cases the minds of the writers became the laboratory in which God converted His breath, as it were, into human language. This was not done by a mechanical process. The personality and temperament of the writers were not suspended. These are manifest in the writings. Hence we read from Gaussen: "In maintaining that all Scripture is from God, we are far from thinking that man goes fornothing in it . . . In Scripture all the words are man's, as there, too, all the words are God's. In a certain sense, the Epistle to the Romans is altogether a letter of Paul's and, in a still higher sense, the Epistle to the Romans is altogether a letter of God's" (Theopneustia, a book indorsed highly by C. H. Spurgeon). And so we read also from Manly: "The divine origin and authority of the Word of God is not to be affirmed so as to exclude or impair the reality of the human authorship, and the peculiarities resulting there from. The Bible is God's Word to man, throughout; yet at the same time it is really and thoroughly a man's composition. No attempt should be made-and we shall certainly make none-to set aside or ignore the "human element" of the Scriptures, which is unmistakably apparent on their very face; no one should wish to so magnify the divine as to crowd this out, or almost out. This is one of the mistakes which good men have committed.* *The following quotation is very much to the point here: "Sometimes, it may be frankly conceded, zeal for the divine authority and inerrancy of theScriptures may have led to untenable theories and modes of expression, that have rather obscured the truth. To say, e. g., that the writers were mere passive instruments in the hand of the Spirit, or at best amanuenses writing to dictation-to adopt, in other words, the mechanical theory, is unwarrantedand mischievous. It is no part of the doctrine, and has never been generally held" (New Biblical Guide, Urquhart, Vol. 8, Page 175).__________Let both be admitted, recognized, accepted thankfully and rejoicingly, each contributing to make the Bible more completely adapted to human needs as the instrument of divine grace, and the guide for weak and wandering human souls. The word is not of man, as to its source; nor depending on man, as to its authority. It is by and through man as its medium; yet not only simply as the channel along which it runs, like water through a lifeless pipe, but through and by man as the agent voluntarily active "and intelligent in its communication. Both sides of the truth are expressed in the Scriptural language: 'Holy men of God spake as they were moved (borne along) by the Holy Spirit.' (2 Pet. 1:21). The men spoke; the impulse and direction were from God" (The Bible Doctrine of Inspiration). "The Scriptures contain ahuman as well as a divine element, so that while they constitute a body of infallible truth, this truth is shaped in human moulds and adapted to ordinary human intelligence" (Strong).111. INSPIRATION ACCOMPLISHED MIRACULOUSLYThe human element in the Bible does not affect its infallibility, just as the human nature of Christ did not affect His infallibility. Inspiration was accomplished miraculously just as the virgin birth of Christ wasaccomplished miraculously, and just as men are brought to repentance and faith miraculously. Repentance and faith are voluntary acts of the man, yet they are wrought in him by the Holy Spirit. God accomplished the miracle of inspiration by providentially preparing the writers for their work and by sorevealing His truth to them and so enabling, guiding, and superintending them in the recording of it as to give to us through them an exact and complete transmission of all that He was pleased to reveal."Although the Holy Spirit did not select the words for the writers, it is evident that He did select them through the writers" (Bancroft, Elemental Theology).IV. METHODS IN INSPIRATIONThe miraculous element in inspiration, of course, cannot be explained. And we have no desire that man should be able to explain it. But to some extent,at least, we can discern from the Scripture the methods God used ininspiration. A study of the methods used should heighten our appreciation ofinspiration.1) Inspiration Through objective Revelation.Sometimes there was given a direct and oral revelation to be written down, such as was the case in the giving of the Mosaic law (Ex. 20:1), and such as was the case, in some instances, with other writers (Dan. 9:21-23; Rev. 17:7).2) Inspiration Through supernatural Vision.In other cases a supernatural vision was given with or without an interpretation of it, as was the case with John on the Isle of Patmos.3) Inspiration Through Passivity.At other times, when we are given no evidence of an external revelation ofany kind, the writers were so consciously and passively moved by the Holy Spirit as to be knowingly ignorant of the full import of what they wrote, as was the case with the prophets when they wrote of Christ (1 Pet. 1:10).4) Inspiration Through Divine Illumination.Sometimes there was given to the writers such divine illumination as to enable them to understand and apply truth contained in former revelations, but not made fully clear by them; as was the case with New Testament writers in interpreting and applying Old Testament Scripture (Acts 1:16,17,20; 2:16-21; Rom. 4:1-3; 10:5-11).5) Inspiration Through God's Direction.In some cases the writers were merely so guided and guarded as to be enabled to record infallibly such historical facts as God was pleased to have them record, whether those facts were personally known to them, obtained from others, or supernaturally revealed. All historical books are examples in point here.6) Inspiration Through Subjective Revelation.At other times truth was revealed through the writers by such divine quickening and deepening of their own thinking as to enable them to perceive and infallibly record new truth, as seems to have been the case with Paul in much of his epistles.Summing it all up, we may say that the process of inspiration consisted of such means and influences as it pleased God to employ, according to the circumstances, in order to give us a divine, complete, and infallible revelation of all religious truth we need during this life. Or with A. H. Strong we may say: "By the inspiration of the Scriptures, we mean that special divine influence upon the minds of the Scripture writers in virtue of which their productions, apart from errors of transcription, and when rightly interpreted, together constitute an infallible and sufficient rule of faith and practice."V. THE EXTENT OF INSPIRATIONIt will be seen that verbal inspiration is implied in what we have said already. But, as also already said, this does not destroy the human element in the Scripture. The Scripture is all the Word of God; yet most of it is also the word of man. The writers differ in temperament, language, and style; and these differences are clearly manifest in their writings; yet their productions are as truly and fully the Word of God as any utterance of Jesus.VI. PROOFS OF VERBAL INSPIRATIONIn proof of the fact that the Bible is inspired in word, and not merely in thought, we call attention to the following evidences:1) Inspired Scripture necessarily involves Verbal Inspiration.We are told that the Scripture is inspired. Scripture consists of written words. Thus we necessarily have verbal inspiration.2) Paul Affirmed that he used Words taught him by the Holy Spirit.In 1 Cor. 2:13, in referring to the things he knew through the Holy Spirit, he said: "Which things we speak, not in the words which man's wisdomteacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth." This is a positive affirmation on the part of Paul that he was not left to himself in the selection of words.*3) Peter Affirmed the Verbal Inspiration of His Own and Other Apostle's Writings.In 2 Pet. 3:1,2, 15,16, Peter puts his own and other apostles writings on a level with the Old Testament Scriptures. And, since Peter believed the Old Testament Scriptures to be verbally inspired (Acts 1:16), it follows, therefore, that he considered__________*It is charged by some that in Acts 23:5 and 1 Cor. 7:10,12, Paul admits non inspiration. In Acts 23:5 Paul says concerning the High Priest, "I wist not, brethren, that he was the High Priest." This "may be explained either as the language of indignant irony: 'I would not recognize such a man as HighPriest'; or, more naturally, as an actual confession of personal ignorance and fallibility, which does not affect the inspiration of any of Paul's final teachings or writings" (Strong). Inspiration does not mean that Bible writers were always infallible in judgment or impeccable in life, but that in their capacity of official teachers and spokesmen for God they were preserved from error.In the passages from the first Corinthian epistle, Paul says in the case of one command: "I command, yet not I, but the Lord;" while in the case of other commands he says: "The rest speak I, not the Lord." But notice that at the end of the latter series of exhortations he says: "I think ... I have the Spirit ofGod" (1 Cor. 7:40). "Paul distinguishes, therefore, here ... not between his own and inspired commands, but between those which proceeded from his own (God-inspired) subjectivity, and those which Christ Himself supplied by his objective word" (Meyer, in Loco).__________the writings of himself and those of other apostles as being verbally inspired.**4) Quotations in the New Testament from the Old Testament prove the Verbal Inspiration of New Testament Writers.The Jews had a superstitious regard for the very letter of Scripture. Certainly, then, devout Jews, if left to themselves, would be exceedingly careful to quote Scripture as it is written. But we find in the New Testament about two hundred and sixty-three direct quotations from the Old Testament, and of these, according to Horne, eighty-eight are verbal quotations from the Septuagint; sixty-four are borrowed from it; thirty seven have the same meaning, but different words; sixteen agree more nearly with the Hebrew; and twenty differ from both the Hebrew and the Septuagint. All the New Testament writers, except Luke, were Jews, yet they did not write as Jews. What can account for this if they were not conscious of divine sanction of every word they wrote? Some good examples of quotations from the Old Testament by New Testament writers where new meaning is put into the quotations are found in Rom. 4:6,7, which is a quotation from Psa. 32:1, and Rom. 10:6-8, which is a quotation from Deut. 30:11-14.5) Matthew Affirmed that the Lord spake through the Prophets of the Old Testament. See Revised Version of Matt. 1:22 and 2:15.6) Luke Affirmed that the Lord spake by the Mouth of the Holy Prophets (Luke 1:70).__________** A question may be raised as to Peter's dissimulation at Antioch, where we have a "practical disavowal of his convictions by separating and withdrawing himself from the Gentile Christians (Gal. 2:11-13)" (Strong). "Here was no public teaching, but the influence of private example. But neither in this case, nor in that mentioned above (Acts 23:5), did God suffer the error to be a final one. Through the agency of Paul the Holy Spirit set the matter right" (Strong).__________7) The Writer to the Hebrews affirms the Same Thing. (Heb. 1:1).8) Peter Affirmed that the Holy Spirit spake by the Mouth of David (Acts 1:16).9) Paul's Argument in Gal. 3:16 implies Verbal Inspiration.In this place Paul bases an argument on the singular number of the word "seed" in God's promise to Abraham.10) Old Testament Writers constantly implied and taught the Divine Authority of their Very Words.Passages in proof of this are too numerous to need mentioning.11) Fulfilled Prophecy is Proof of Verbal Inspiration. A study of fulfilled prophecy will convince any open-minded person that the prophets were necessarily inspired in the very words they uttered. Otherwisethey could not have foretold something of which they knew very little.12) Jesus Affirmed the Verbal Inspiration of the Scriptures. Jesus said: "The Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35), by which He meant that its meaning cannot be loosed nor its truthfulness destroyed.Meaning and truth are dependent upon words for expression. Infallible meaning is impossible without infallible words.AO2 The extent to which the Bible can be regarded as the inspired word of God.The idea that the words of the Bible are inspired by God may be briefly summarized as follows:This is the claim of the classical text (2 Timothy 3:16).It is the emphatic testimony of Paul that he spoke in “Words … taught by the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:13).It is evident from the repeated formula, “It is written.”Jesus said that which was written in the whole Old Testament spoke of Him (Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39; Hebrews 10:7).The New Testament constantly equates the Word of God with the Scripture (writings of the Old Testament, cf. Matthew 21:42; Romans 15:4; 2 Peter 3:16).Jesus indicated that not even the smallest part of a Hebrew word or letter could be broken (Matthew 5:8).The New Testament refers to the written record as the “oracles of God” (Romans 3:2; Hebrews 5:12).Occasionally the writers were even told to “diminish not a word” (Jeremiah 26:2, AV). John even pronounced an anathema upon all who would add to or subtract from the “words of the prophecy of this book” (Revelation 22:18, 19).The Bible cannot be regarded as the inspired word of GodThe Bible has been copied and translated so many time and we do not have an original manuscript, therefore the Bibles we see today do not contain the inspired word of God."Of what value is the verbal inspiration of the original manuscripts of Scripture, since we donot have these original manuscripts, and since the great majority of people must depend upon translations of the original languages, which translations cannot be held to be infallible." Challenge identified by Simmons (who then rejected the challenge).The two genealogies of Jesus are held to be contradictory, as are the stories of Jesus’ birth and early life. For these genealogies see Matt. 1 and Luke 3 and booklet 1.Whether the Christian biblical canonical orders are inspired, as opposed to just the texts they contain.Christian biblical canonical orders were inspiredThe Biblical canonical texts were inspired ................
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